Heat, American Airlines’ tool for weathering summer storms
Airline operations are carefully planned and orchestrated to be reliable and in constant motion. Because when an airline is grounded, not only its aircraft and crew are grounded, but also its passengers, making it more difficult to return operations to normal.
American Airlines has developed cutting-edge technology that keeps customers moving, even when weather conditions impact hubs. The Hub Efficiency Analytics Tool (HEAT) dynamically adjusts the airline’s operation to ensure that customers, crew and aircraft continue with their itineraries when weather threatens to disrupt schedules.
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Developed in-house at the airline, HEAT optimizes information about the weather, how many passengers are on flights, customer connections and gate availability, as well as any traffic or crew constraints. An advanced algorithm then analyzes this data and adjusts arrivals and departures at each hub. Experts at American’s Integrated Operations Center (IOC) – the nerve center of the operation – use HEAT to help cope with the most severe weather conditions and their impacts to keep the operation running, getting customers to their destination faster in adverse weather conditions.
“HEAT is an innovative tool and part of our irregular operations scenario roadmap that will only get smarter with use,” said Timothy Niznik, American’s Director of IOC Analytics. “Every time we run HEAT, we analyze the results and incorporate them in a way that allows us to improve the strategies and technologies that help us continue our operation.”
Since its launch last year, HEAT has prevented at least 1,000 flight cancellations on the American Airlines network.
“HEAT allows us to optimize our flight time in adverse weather conditions to provide a better experience for our customers and crew-it’s definitely changing the rules of the game,” said Bob Shirley, Air Control and Dispatcher Coordinator, and a member of the team that created the tool.
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